Questions about how the Alabama Crimson Tide would fare without its legendary head coach, Nick Saban, entering the 2024 season were squashed on Saturday when they blew out Western Kentucky, 63-0, under new coach Kalen DeBoer.
The Crimson Tide heard all the skeptical jargon about them entering Week 1, and Western Kentucky quarterback TJ Finley was among them.
Finley, who played at LSU, Auburn and Texas State before joining WKU in his fifth collegiate season, said before the game that Alabama "might not be who they think they are."
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Alabama linebacker Tyler Booker admitted that was just fuel to the Crimson Tide’s fire.
"It was a little disrespectful, we definitely saw what he said," Booker said, via SI.com. "That wasn't the main motivation for going out there and hanging 63 points on them, obviously, we're going to play to our standard but that just added a little fuel to the fire.
"When one of their players says something along the lines of, '[They] might not be who [they] think [they] are,' our whole purpose of the game is to just show 'em who we are and who we say we are. I feel like we accomplished that and I think he'd say the same."
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Alabama, the fourth-ranked team in the country entering the new season, was electric with Jalen Milroe, their veteran quarterback who wasn’t among the many who entered the transfer portal following news of Saban’s retirement, throwing for 200 yards and three touchdowns on just seven completions. Milroe also rushed for two touchdowns on 10 attempts with 79 yards on the ground as well.
Meanwhile, Finley was 18-for-31 for just 92 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns. The rushing yards leader for WKU was Elijah Young with only 18 yards on 10 carries.
When looking at the team stats, Alabama had 600 yards of total offense to WKU’s 145, and the Crimson Tide almost averaged 10 yards per play (9.2).
It was quite the first game for DeBoer, who previously led the Washington Huskies to the national title game in 2023. His squad ultimately lost to the Michigan Wolverines, but DeBoer impressed the Crimson Tide enough to make him the next head coach of the storied SEC program.
DeBoer’s squad answered some questions in their first game, and there’s a tough schedule ahead, including No. 1-ranked Georgia in three weeks.
But for teams likes South Florida and Wisconsin in the next couple of weeks, keeping comments like Finley had to themselves would be best, as Alabama’s fire is already shining bright after its dominant performance.
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